Giana's Surgery

While I know that I need to post about Christmas, I really wanted to get some pics up of my brave little Giana today. Giana had surgery this morning to get tubes put in both of her ears. She's had consistent double ear infections since Sept. and has been on 6 antibiotics, all of which have not really given her (or us) and relief. Since Talia was not allowed in the hospital (b/c of the H1N1 virus, and she is younger than 12), Giana and I left the house at 5:45 am to get to Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington by 6:30. The ride was fast, and we arrived by 6:10. We were able to go into a pre-op room right away. Our nurse, Star was so nice and Giana really seemed to like her too. I had to fill out a bunch of paperwork, and Giana was really calm and in a great mood. After being weighed (10.9 kilos--right at 24 pounds), I changed her into her little yellow gown and red booties.

Right around 7, she received some medication, to help to make her drowsy before the surgery. Well, it did not only make her drowsy, but it made her loopy too! She was laughing at everything that I said. It was great!

Around 7:15, the anesthesiologist came in to tell me the procedures: since it was a relatively short procedure, she would get a mask with gas and go completely under; no IV was necessary; and finally that there was a really small risk on anything going wrong...which did make me feel better. I told him (through my tears) that I was most concerned about her going under and he assured me that he would be with her the whole time. Right at 7:30, Dr. Cundiff, the ENT, who also is a friend of ours from Bradley (his wife Lauren is one of my close friends and I stood up to her wedding, as she did ours) asked if I had any questions, told me that it would be a fast procedure and that he would take care of her like she was his. When Star came back to get Giana to take her back to the OR a few minutes later, she was pretty sleepy and was happy to go into the big crib and be wheeled away. She had her animal book, her pacifier and her blanket with her. I shed a few tears, grabbed our stuff, and headed out to the waiting room. Around 7:55, Jason (Dr. Cundiff) came out, told me that Giana did great, and was already back to breathing on hew own. A few minutes later, they called me back to a post op room, so that I would be there waiting for her when she arrived. When they wheeled her in, she was lying face down seemingly half asleep, but when she saw me, she started to cry and tried to get up for me to hold her. I quickly grabbed her, although her tears and cries did not end. I quickly made her a 6 ounce bottle, which she quickly drank and then continued to cry, wanting more. After another 4 ounce bottle, she was quieter, but then burped, which seemed to scare her and then she let out a very loud cry.

POOR BABY! I would get her to calm down and she would burp again, and then cry again. It was a tough 45 minutes or so. After her vitals were good for a while, we were free to go.

She did not want me to put her down, so as soon as I tried to change her out of her yellow gown, she began to cry again and continued crying until we got in the car. After a few minutes of listening to HSM, she fell asleep around 9, and actually transferred to her crib once we got home. She slept until 11:15 and seemed happy and hungry when she woke up. She played, but was a bit irritable, but continued to smile and laugh. She took a longer afternoon nap and had a great evening. She seemed to be back to her happy self. She has even started to make a silly smiley face, which shows her 2 front teeth. So cute!

We hope that tomorrow will be a great day for her. We are so thankful that her surgery went well today. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. We really appreciate them.

Christmas Day

We were so excited to celebrate Christmas this year. Talia really understood all about Jesus' birthday, she was super excited about presents, and it was Giana's first Christmas. First the girls opened presents

After opening presents however, we noticed water in our basement, and poor Kenny spent a couple of hours with the shop vac cleaning it all up. Here is what it looked like after most of the water was gone.

Talia and I decided to bake cookies and burnt the first batch.

It was a tough morning to get out of the house! But we did get out and went to Mario and Shirell's for a delicious lunch. After lunch, we opened presents

took some pictures, and had a good day!

We hope that your Christmas was just was wonderful!

Christmas Eve

After much deliberation about whether or not to head to Wisconsin (we have a new niece and both of the girls and Kenny were sick), we decided to go to celebrate Christmas Eve with the Engstrom clan. Although she just had a baby, our sister-in-law Shari, cooked a great meal. Here are a few pics of our day:

Here is our new niece, Reagan

Kenny and his brothers Peter and David and the kids--Talia, Giana, Pierce and Reagan

Giana was not so happy that I was holding sweet 9 day old Reagan

Talia "reading" The 12 Days of Christmas (Elmo style) to Pierce

Opening presents

We had a great day! We are so excited about Christmas!

Giana at 11 months

Gigi is certainly in "the wheelhouse of cuteness." (as Kenny likes to say) She just gets cuter and more fun everyday. What a joy it is to play with her and watch her. Here are some things that she is now doing at 11 months: she clicks her tongue and blows kisses. She has just popped her 4th tooth and will grind them. It is funny to see her trying figure out what her teeth are. She loves babies (girls are really wired differently than boys and it seems to start so young) and will call any baby that she sees "baby"....like what is she?? She also tries to put on Talia's necklaces, but goes over her head with them. She isn't walking quite yet, but she is standing on her own for a few seconds. She is getting faster at cruising furniture, and uses the wheelie toy to get around, but gets mad when it crashes into the wall and stops her. She also loves to go up stairs and is not happy when the gate is there to block her way.

Some of her new food loves are ritz crackers, graham crackers, any cheese and yogurt. She will also eat pretty much anything that we are eating too. Good job!

She loves to touch the tree and lights. She also loves music and her fave song right now is a song from HSM 2. If you sing "na, na na na , you are the music in ____" she will say “me!” Very cute! While she is not clapping her hands on her own yet, when she does clap, her hands are now open (not in fists anymore). She is really getting cause and effect—if I drop something off my highchair, where will it go? If I pull Talia’s hair, what reaction will I get? If I push this button, what will happen? And she does like to push buttons to hear songs and push the keys to play the piano. She really loves the microphone and loves to hear her voice echo on it. She loves to open and close all drawers/cabinets and take everything out. We've really had to baby proof! She also really has a love of animals. She loves Gunner (Annie's dog) and loves when he licks her. She loves the pets of our friends and will chase around cats. It is so opposite of Talia and is great to see.

Her new words includes: please (peas), more (mo), all done (ah duh), uh-oh, and ni-ni (night night); really playing with her voice—coughing for fun, screaming, vibrating her throat. She really seems to understand so much--come here, up, down, open, close, no...just to name a few. You can also ask her "where's mama, dada, Talia" and she will look to that person/object.

We went to the doctor today for another check-up and she continues to have a double ear infection! We did a pre-operation visit and she weighs in at 23.5 pounds and 29 ¼ inches long. She will have surgery to get tubes on Tuesday, Dec 29. Hopefully this will help to give her some relief from the ear infections that do not end!!! Despite these horrible ear infections, the croupy cough and the constant runny/stuffy nose, she is the happiest, easy go lucky baby. We are so lucky!

Giana's New Ride

Giana has been cruising on furniture and we recently brought up a wheelie toy to help her move while walking. Today, she used the laundry basket to help her walk around and then she went for a ride in it. She loved it! She was giggling the entire time. So fun! Then Talia wanted to push her and she wanted her turn too.

Our Tree

Just wanted to share some pics of our tree this year. With and without the flash on.

From the Mouth of Babes...

Just wanted to share a funny story:

Talia was laying on the couch, while I was putting some “medicine” (cream) on her tushie. Talia turns to Kenny and says, “Daddy, you hurt me when you wiped me so hard yesterday. You need to say I’m sorry to my butt!” Ha Ha!

First "Real" Snow and Movie Day

Hooray for snow--especially when I do not have to drive to work in it!!! Talia was super excited to see the snow and couldn't wait to get out there to play.

She loves to sled,

"help" Kenny shovel

and even made a snow angel.

After about 20 minutes out there, she was cold, wet and tired and came inside to dry off. Once she changed clothes, we headed out to see The Princess and the Frog with our friends Miss Debbie and Taylor, and Miss Jill and Lucy. We first met for lunch at Noodles

and then headed over to the movie theater. Since this was her first movie, you could not get the smile off of her face

...until the evil scary voodoo guy came on the screen, and then she came up with any excuse to get out of there. We did stay until the end, but she was sitting on my lap and there were a few tears shed.

Good thing the movie is only an hour and a half long!

Hens Holiday Party

My "Hens" play group that meets every Thursday hosted the annual Holiday party today...and it was great. Kenny was able to join us, as he is on VACATION now (hooray!), so he got to join in on the craziness of 20+ kids and moms all around. Santa even came to see everyone and collected some toys for Toys for Tots.

While Talia was super excited to see him, (she really got into giving him some toys--she couldn't believe that some kids did not have toys to play with),

Giana wasn't so sure of him.

Ornament Painting and Gingerbread Cookie Decorating

Talia and I had a great afternoon painting ornaments for the tree and decorating gingerbread cookies. She loves to do arts and crafts and she is really good at them too. Fine motor is definitely a strength of hers.